There is an old saying my dad used to drop on me all the time. I am sure he borrowed it from someone else, because that is how sayings work, but it always made me laugh. “Patience comes to those who wait.” Yeah. No shit. It is one of those circular little life lessons that sounds profound until you actually sit with it. Of course patience comes to those who wait. Waiting is the whole point. You do not get patience without the time component. You do not get the growth without the uncomfortable middle.
I have typed that word a lot this season. Patience. Over and over again when talking about the Phoenix Suns. Especially when talking about their tenth overall pick, Khaman Maluach.
And still, you scroll. You read the comments. You see the frustration. You see people wondering why he did not walk into the league and start flattening grown men like Shaquille O Neal or floating through the paint like Hakeem Olajuwon. As if that was ever the expectation. As if that was ever realistic. He is neither of those players. He is a nineteen-year-old who started playing basketball five years ago.
Yes, he flashed at Duke. You saw the length, the mobility, and the outlines of something that could be special. That does not mean the finished product was supposed to arrive overnight. Development is not cinematic. It is repetition. It is mistakes. It is heavy legs and blown coverages and moments where the game moves too fast. Then slowly, almost quietly, it begins to slow down.
An understanding has to take root here. A realization that this is a long play. That what you are watching is the foundation being poured, not the banner being raised. And foundations take time to cure.
Patience comes to those who wait.
And in my opinion, the Suns continue to handle the development of Khaman Maluach the correct way.
They have not rushed him. They have not thrown him into the deep end and told him to swim with sharks before he understands where the ladder is. They are teaching him the game. They are installing the system piece by piece. They are giving him film — real film — possessions he can rewind and dissect and learn from.
They are using their G League affiliate the way a serious franchise should. Not as exile or as punishment. But as a laboratory. As a classroom with hardwood floors. A place to stack minutes, to make mistakes, and to feel the rhythm of being a focal point. The hope is always that those reps translate when the call comes from the big club.
Phoenix has done that multiple times in the past couple of years with different players. This is not new. This is infrastructure. Yet for the box score watchers, the ones refreshing their apps at midnight, if Maluach posts a line that does not sparkle, the verdict arrives immediately. Bust. Overdrafted. Missed opportunity.
Development does not always show up cleanly in a 7-of-9, 12 rebound, 3 block stat line. Sometimes it is a better angle on a pick-and-roll coverage. Sometimes it is recognizing a weak side rotation half a second earlier. Sometimes it is not biting on the first fake. Those things do not trend on social media.
Oh, if only box scores dictated growth. If only it were that simple. If only scouting and development could be reduced to a stat line and a couple of shooting splits.
I love that the Phoenix Suns have sent Khaman Maluach to the G League eleven times this season. Eleven! And every time he steps on that floor, he is still one of the youngest players out there. He looks young. He is young. Yet with each stint, you can see the progression. The reads get quicker, the positioning sharpens, and the confidence grows. Those reps have started to translate into meaningful minutes with the big club.
With a small break in the schedule, the Suns sent him to Austin to face the Texas Legends on Saturday night. And this time, he delivered the kind of box score that even the casual refresh and react crowd cannot shrug at.
He controlled the game. He controlled the paint. His size was overwhelming. The Legends had no real counter for his length and his timing. This was not a quiet developmental run. This was a statement performance. He imposed himself, he dictated the pace around the rim, and he made the floor feel smaller for anyone daring to venture inside.
This is what the G League is for. It is a proving ground. It is a confidence builder. It is a space where a nineteen-year-old can test the edges of his game against grown professionals and feel what it is like to dominate. And when he does things like that, the growth becomes harder to ignore.
Like, um, this? Can you ignore this?!
Thus far this season, Maluach has made 11 appearances with the Valley Suns, and in those games, he is averaging 16.5 points on 52.6% shooting, including 26.7% from beyond the arc. He is pulling down 12.8 rebounds and blocking 2.5 shots per game. Overall, he sits at a team best +20.
That +/- number, over his 333 minutes, also serves as a quiet reminder that the Valley Suns, as a whole, have not been a dominant team.
What stands out is the steadiness of his growth. It is not explosive. It is incremental and layered. And as we enter the final stretch of the regular season, that growth should translate into more opportunities with the Phoenix Suns when they present themselves. He is not ready to be the starting center of this team. He probably is not ready to be the full-time backup either. That reality might frustrate some people. It might irritate others who want the leap to happen on their timeline.
Although this season has taught us something over and over again. Expectations have to be tempered. Patience has to be practiced. Development does not bend to public demand.
Maluach is going to be a quality center for this franchise for years to come. The flashes are real. The tools are real. The trajectory is real. The fact that it is not happening overnight does not change where this is headed. It’ll come…to those who wait.
